Beyond-Brawn-2nd-Edition

HOW TO SET UP YOUR TRAINING CYCLES FOR BIG RETURNS
7.119 Some rep schemes you may want to try are 4–6, 5–8, 6–10, 8–12, 8–15, 10–15,
12–15, 12–20, and 15–20. According to how you “connect” with different rep
counts, some ranges will be more productive for you on a given exercise than
others.
7.120 Some people are better “reppers” than are others. Some people will find it
much easier, at least in some exercises, to add a little weight next time, and
still get their regular fixed rep target, than they would trying to get more
reps with the old weight.
7.121 Perhaps in the bench press you are a low-rep person who, using 4-rep sets,
can, once in new poundage territory, add half a kilo to the bar each week for
a few months, but may struggle for weeks to build up from 4 to 6 reps with
the same poundage. If you are not a good repper, like in this example, stick
with a fixed rep target and concentrate on poundage progression, i.e., single
progression. If you are a good repper, then at least for some spells use the
double-progression method.
Comparison of rep and weight progression
7.122 Relative to the choice of adding reps or weight, recall what was said in Chapter
4:
According to the Maurice and Rydin chart for upper-body exercises, an increase
of one rep corresponds to about a 3% decrease in resistance. If you are overhead
pressing 180 pounds for 5 reps, to increase your rep count by a mere one, to 6, is
comparable to adding 5.5 pounds while keeping the rep count at 5. is is a big
increase if the 180-pound 5-rep set is already very demanding. So adding very
small increments, while using a constant rep count, is a better trick (mentally
and physically) for progressing sufficiently gradually that gains can be steady
and consistent.
Even when you cannot increase your rep count you can probably perform the
same number of reps but with a very small increment on the bar.
Constant working poundages
7.123 As John McKean explained to me, some of today’s old timers, when they
were in their prime, used constant “working poundages” for most of their
training. (McKean has extensive experience in competitive Olympic weightlifting,
powerlifting and all-round lifting, with the latter being his current
focus.) A constant poundage means a fixed weight for each exercise, not the
same poundage for all exercises.
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